When I write trivia questions, my job is to know things. But this book is about knowing what we don’t know and can’t know. We assume “black swans” don’t exist simply because all the other swans we’ve seen are white. With this metaphor, Taleb critiques modern thinking and offers a how-to guide for living in an uncertain world. Written by a philosopher/quant (What’s a “quant”? Exactly.), it’s not exactly a summer read. Then again, it’s not summer (though despite what Greg Fishel said, tomorrow could be very warm). I wouldn’t call it “life-changing,” but I would call it “mind-changing.”